This is a partial transcript from “Hannity & Colmes,” April 5, 2007, that has been edited for clarity.
SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: Nancy Pelosi’s personal diplomacy mission to Syria has drawn jeers from many Americans, but the San Francisco speaker’s controversial trip is receiving cheers abroad. There are now reports that some Palestinian terror groups are praising the Democratic leader’s questionable Mideast jaunt.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KHALID AL-BATCH, ISLAMIC JIHAD: I think that Mrs. Pelosi is going in a good route with this policy, that she can achieve in the Middle East.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Joining us now, Democratic strategist, FOX News contributor Laura Schwartz, and the author of the number-one best-seller “Godless: The Church of Liberalism,” Ann Coulter is back with us.
All right, Laura, let me read the last line of the “Washington Post” blasting Pelosi today. It goes, “But Ms. Pelosi’s attempt to establish a shadow presidency is not only counterproductive, but it’s foolish.”
Here’s my question to you. This is a pretty simple question. If she is going to go and bow at the altar of a guy that supports terror — a terrorist state, as judged by our own State Department — don’t you think the main question she should have asked would be, you know, when are you going to stop subjugating women?
LAURA SCHWARTZ, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Sean, you know, that editorial is contradicted by its own reporting. On page A15 of today’s “Post,” Nancy Pelosi went there with the same message as President Bush and the vice president.
HANNITY: What does that have to do with my question?
SCHWARTZ: She’s shared that message. Well, because she’s not there supporting Syria or anything President Assad has done. She’s there to tell him that you’ve got to stop sending Syrians across your border, stop sponsoring Hezbollah and Hamas, and stop sponsoring terror. Period, it’s the same message.
HANNITY: You didn’t answer the question. Instead of saying things that weren’t true, and sending messages from Israel that Israel didn’t send…
SCHWARTZ: What wasn’t true? What wasn’t true of what she said?
HANNITY: Hang on a second. Well, the Israelis contradicted what she had said. But putting that aside, don’t you think…
(CROSSTALK)
SCHWARTZ: Well, they didn’t contradict. They clarified because of the press coverage. Let’s be clear about that.
HANNITY: I know you love Nancy Pelosi. She’s such a great leader. But here’s my question. Instead of contradicting — instead of, you know, attacking the president, using this as an opportunity to try and embarrass George Bush when he didn’t want her to go, wouldn’t it be good if she held a press conference and said, “I confronted Assad about the treatment of women”? Wouldn’t that be something that you liberals would be really proud of?
SCHWARTZ: Well, first of all, the president knew she was going. She told him the day before, when he was up there at the Capitol presenting the gold medal of honor to the Tuskegee airmen. And he didn’t say anything about her not going or objecting to it.
Number two, she carried this administration’s message to President Assad of Syria. I do not know if she got into the subjugation, but if you even talked to the Republican congressional members in that meeting, they will confirm that she brought forth a message that coincides with the president of the United States, not contradicting the president of the United States.
HANNITY: Ann Coulter, you know, it’s amazing she didn’t answer one question. But I’ve got to tell you, I’m almost embarrassed for Nancy Pelosi. She looked ridiculous. She’s acting ridiculous. She clearly is being used.
When you listen to Aaron Klein, who got the interview that we played part of, Islamic Jihad, Al Jazeera, the Al-Aqsa Martyr Brigades, Hamas and Hezbollah have all sent out messages of how great she is, using her to attack the president for propaganda purposes.
ANN COULTER, AUTHOR: Oh, yes, no, that was an amazing article in World Net Daily.
HANNITY: Yes, the World Net Daily, yes.
COULTER: The one person who’s happy is Cindy Sheehan, since there’s now one person even less sophisticated in foreign policy.
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Hang on. She’s finishing a point. Go ahead.
COULTER: And to answer your question, no, I think it would have been good if Nancy Pelosi had mentioned something about women’s rights, but I do think she looked cute in that burqa.
ALAN COLMES, CO-HOST: Hey, by the way, you…
COULTER: Hello.
COLMES: Nice to see you. You accused Nancy Pelosi of being in a burqa. She was not in a burqa. She was wearing a head scarf, just like Laura Bush.
(CROSSTALK)
COLMES: Let me put up on the screen a picture of Laura Bush visiting the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem wearing the same thing Nancy Pelosi wore. So that’s an unfair accusation.
Secondly, U.S. Representative David Hobson, the Republican on the trip in the delegation with Nancy Pelosi, says that she reinforced Bush’s administration policies to Assad. So is Hobson lying?
COULTER: Is Hobson a protege of Chuck Hagel’s?
COLMES: He’s a Republican congressman, a conservative congressperson…
COULTER: I know that. I’ve never heard of him, which doesn’t surprise me though.
COLMES: … who said she was reinforcing Bush policies.
COULTER: I gather we’ll be hearing more from these three Republicans. I thought it was going to be Specter, Chuck Hagel, John McCain. Those are the usual Republicans you pull out. But, no, these Republicans should not have gone, either, and, no, for them to characterize, “Oh, she was carrying Bush’s message,” as Laura just said, no, she wasn’t. Bush’s message was don’t go.
COLMES: All right, then why not criticize the Republicans?
COULTER: That was Bush’s message.
COLMES: Now, let me ask you this.
COULTER: I just did criticize the Republicans.
(CROSSTALK)
COLMES: Is Darrell Issa conservative enough for you?
COULTER: Yes.
COLMES: He met with Assad the day after Nancy Pelosi did.
COULTER: I bet he raised women’s rights. And not only that…
(CROSSTALK)
COLMES: So he wasn’t — you know, we don’t have any recollection of what he talked about.
COULTER: Not only that, OK, this is the first time I’ve heard Darrell Issa — is it “Issa” or “Issa”? I always mispronounce it.
COLMES: I’m sure we’ll be corrected.
COULTER: I think he’s a magnificent Republican congressman. He’s also not speaker of the House. I didn’t even hear he had gone.
COLMES: I see. Now the argument is the speaker of the House.
Dick Cheney said Assad was isolated and put off. And Dick Cheney says…
COULTER: And Issa or Issa shouldn’t have gone.
COLMES: Let me ask you this. Dick Cheney says it’s unfortunate that Pelosi’s visit breaks down the barrier of isolation with Assad, but they only want to attack Nancy Pelosi. They’re not attacking Issa, they’re not attacking Hobson, they’re not attacking any of the Republicans who equally participated.
COULTER: Well, a, I just did attack those Republicans. B, you blow it off as if it means nothing that she’s third in line to the presidency. I had not heard…
COLMES: Those were not the arguments.
COULTER: Well, I’m telling you right now. You asked me; I’m giving you the argument. Of course it’s a bigger deal when the speaker of the House goes over and has her own foreign policy.
(CROSSTALK)
COLMES: She’s reinforcing Bush’s policy.
COULTER: That’s why we know about it. She was not reinforcing — Bush’s policy was don’t go.
COLMES: Laura Bush — Laura Schwartz, I got you confused with the first lady for a second.
(CROSSTALK)
SCHWARTZ: … maybe isolationism isn’t the answer. And like the Baker-Hamilton commission has showed us, and Europeans are fully for it, and so many of the military leaders, retired and present, say, you know what? You’ve got to talk to your enemies. You can’t just isolate them.
HANNITY: We’ve got to break. Hang on, Laura. I think Coulter gets the line of the night: Bush’s policy is don’t go.
COULTER: Yes.
HANNITY: You can’t be…
(CROSSTALK)
COLMES: Are you going to tell that to Issa?
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Laura, when we come back, I have an important question for you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLMES: We now continue with Democratic strategist and FOX News contributor Laurie Schwartz and columnist and author Ann Coulter.
Now here’s some of the things Nancy Pelosi did tell Assad. She said that Syria will talk peace with Israel or Israel rather would talk peace, but they’d better stop supporting Palestinian militants. “The Washington Post” editorial didn’t mention that, but as Laura pointed out, news stories did confirm that and they brought up Syria’s role in Iraq and Lebanon, its support for Hezbollah and Hamas. These were addressed — the same thing President Bush would be saying. What’s wrong with that?
COULTER: I think if I were defending Pelosi right now, I would not be raising the message she brought from Israel since the prime minister of Israel has called her a liar saying you are not carrying any message from me.
COLMES: Well she was in a meeting, she said she not change Israel’s message to say that there was a new message.
COULTER: She is contradicted by both the president of the United States and the prime minister of Israel.
SCHWARTZ: And the others there confirmed that she did not say it.
COLMES: She was in the meeting. She knows what she said. She was there.
(CROSSTALK)
COULTER: No, the point is, she claims that she was bringing a message from Israel. Israel says you weren’t bringing a message from us.
COLMES: No, Israel said you changed the message. She said no, I did not change the message. Laura Schwartz, what she said was consistent with when Israel has always said which is we will talk peace under these conditions. Israel’s always said that.
SCHWARTZ: Exactly, with stopping the lengths to extremists in Hamas and Hezbollah and so forth, which she did say during the press conference, but the press shortchanged that aspect and just said about the peace part. Well of course Israel wanted to clarify that, but they did not disengage from Pelosi. They merely clarified it, as if you see the press conference, you see as well.
COULTER: OK, Olmert is going to have to come out and denounce you and Alan.
COLMES: Thank you, I welcome the press will get that. By the way, another Republican, Joe Pitts of Pennsylvania was there and his chief of staff Gabe Neville says what their trip and what they did was done in cooperation with the administration.
SCHWARTZ: The state department was at their meetings. This wasn’t a long ranger going off and meeting with the president, Assad of Syria. The state department was president. And they have been conducting talks since the beginning of the year with Syria, which is a positive direction for this administration.
COLMES: So as the president says, it’s OK for republican congress people to go, but its’ not OK for Democrats to go. There’s a double standard. Only Republican-elected officials are allowed to go and carry the water for the administration.
COULTER: OK, sorry, she’ll just answer all my questions.
COLMES: I actually was looking at Ann, but Laura didn’t see that, go ahead.
COULTER: President Bush’s position is the same as my position. No it’s not OK for Republicans to go. I don’t know how many times either I or President Bush has to say this.
COLMES: Then why is it that this Republican, Joe Pitts of Pennsylvania.
COULTER: The great Joe Pitts of Pennsylvania?
COLMES: They went with the.
COULTER: Is it Bunny Chip, Pennsylvania or is it from Frogs Breath, Pennsylvania.
COLMES: Are they not part of America, Ann? A country that you love?
COULTER: No, but it doesn’t make news.
COLMES: With the approval of the administration?
COULTER: No, he did not go with approval from the administration, that is absolutely false.
COLMES: That’s what he did.
COULTER: You liberals just keep lying about this.
(CROSSTALK)
COULTER: So to viewers are there, they are lying. The Israel itself said no, they were not carrying messages from us and number two, it is not true, no matter what the Democrats on the show say, it’s not true that Bush said it’s OK for Republicans to go. Ann Coulter didn’t say it’s OK either.
HANNITY: I say it’s not OK.
COULTER: But it is different when it’s Joe whatever his name is from Bunny Chip, Pennsylvania, versus the speaker of the House.
HANNITY: Let me go back to Laura. Laura, please put aside your Pelosi talking points. I have a serious question. Hang on a second.
SCHWARTZ: So you know, I am not a Pelosi hard-liner, as I haven’t been on this show.
HANNITY: In your liberal mind and I really want an answer to this, would it be bettor show that America is united against terror and would it be better and this is an important question that we have as a condition, if you’re going to talk to a guy that supports Hamas, that has in its charter the soul goal and destruction of Israel, would it be better before you sit down with such a person that you have a pre-condition that he denounce that position?
SCHWARTZ: Well, if we have pre-conditions, we can’t sit down with them to talk about those positions. You know, it’s the same rhetoric going on with why we don’t talk to Iran or why we don’t talk to other countries. We have to start a dialogue in order to come to an end.
HANNITY: Would you talk with Usama bin Laden? Do you think we should sit down and talk to him?
SCHWARTZ: No, we should have sent all the troops in Iraq to Afghanistan to kill the guy.
HANNITY: Should we talk to Ahmadinejad, who still denies the Holocaust? I mean, where do you begin your discussion? What would you say, please Mr. Ahmadinejad, please believe the Holocaust happened?
SCHWARTZ: Well, if you let me answer, Sean. I think that we should have a certain level of the United States talking to a certain level of Iran. I do not believe the talks should go between President Bush and Ahmadinejad. And I think a lot of people disagree with that as well, my same point. But you have to have dialogue. Like James Baker, well- respected Republican says.
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: That’s a good point — point. This is important. I think what happened here is very obvious. I think Nancy Pelosi, they’re so obsessed, like Bush derangement syndrome, they want to embarrass the president. More importantly, you know something? I bet all of these leaders are laughing at her because they know that she allowed herself, was a willing person, for their propaganda.
COULTER: Of course, we know that. We know approximate in a thank from all of the quotes from of the terrorists and Syria coming out and saying rearrange. And having Syria come out and say we arranged for the British soldiers to be released. Yes, of course Islamic terrorists love the Democratic Party. They root for the electoral successes of the Democratic Party because you chit chatting with Laura Schwartz about what America’s foreign policy should be — fortunately the constitution vests that authority to one man, the commander in chief. It’s not like it’s vested in Congress, which has lots of people, or the judiciary. It’s vested in the commander in chief authorities and running dictative foreign policies which is by the way your president could send a poor little Cuban boy back to Cuba, because foreign policy is run by the president. That’s what the Democrats do. What we do is we don’t talk to terrorists.
COLMES: Joe Pitts represents Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Is that Bunny Chip?
COULTER: It is not three heart beats away from the presidency.
SCHWARTZ: I’m just glad America is smarter than this rhetoric of yours, Ann. It really is a lot smarter.
COLMES: Thank you both very much.
COULTER: Apparently not, Bush is president, not you.
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